The generative organs are wasted and inactive, or so weakened as to secrete but a ropy, thin and glairy fluid, having few or none of the characteristics of Vital Fluid. Should the individual suffering this way—and either careless or unfortunate enough to go uncured—have offspring, they will assuredly be puny in body and weakly in mind, and will lead a miserable existence through the neglect and indiscretion of their parent.
THIRD STAGE.—STAGNATION AND WASTING.
This stage is an aggravation of the two preceding stages combined.
The emissions are accompanied and followed by a disagreeable and disgusting sensation of shame and misery. The mind is absorbed as much as can be by the one idea of its wretched situation, and the sufferer is haunted by the thought that his condition and its cause are known to the whole world, and that he is pitied or scorned by every person he meets. He is hypochondriacal, and fearful suggestions of self-destruction ever and anon present themselves.
The power of mental concentration is entirely gone and the memory is so feeble that the patient continually forgets what he begins to say. The dimness of vision is continual and so great as to be a material annoyance; the eyes are wandering or fixed upon the ground, seldom venturing to meet the gaze of another. The ringing in the ears, pains in the head and over the eyes are almost perpetual and frequently accompanied by partial deafness. The heart is the seat of pain, fluttering and throbbing with violent and long-continued palpitation, his hands shake, his limbs tremble, his knees are weak, so much so that at times it is almost impossible for him to walk erect. He experiences an insatiable desire for sleep, and yet upon retiring he lies awake for hours, tormented by his troubled reflections, and at last falls into an uneasy slumber, of short duration, disturbed by wretched dreams.
Hard, red pimples frequently appear on the face, forehead and body, scaly patches round the ears, eyes, nose and lips, a black or bluish semi-circle shows itself under the eyes, and there is a hollow mark from the corner of the eye in a slanting direction under the cheekbone to the angle of the mouth, which tells its tale. The skin is livid and clammy and the digestion is bad. The patient is tormented with flatulency, which he cannot always control and which he justly dreads, as it renders him an object of disgust to all in his presence. The bowels are generally constipated, obliging him to strain much at stool, thus aggravating the irritation of the prostate gland vesiculæ seminales and increasing the seminal losses.
The bladder is irritable and will retain the urine but a short time; the ureters and kidneys are also inflamed and in post-mortem examinations are We hold out no False Hopes. sometimes found to contain abscesses; they are the seat of much pain when pressure is made over the intervertebral spaces of the dorsal and lumbar vertebræ or backbone. The vesiculæ seminales have been indurated and can be felt to be knotty and hard. The spinal marrow is very sensitive throughout its whole extent; the cerebellum is the seat of a dull and heavy pain, and there is a feeling of pressure upon the brain. Cerebral congestion now and then occurs. This stage of the disease is frequently accompanied by Bronchitis or a continued Catarrh, also by disease of the rectum and all the tissues near the generative organs.
It is hardly necessary to say that the functions of the nervous system are completely deranged, indeed, nervous twitchings of the eyelids, head and limbs are the consequences of Spermatorrhœa. He is finally either hurried to a premature grave by consumption, epilepsy or apoplexy; or insanity, taking the hopeless form of dementia, has removed him from his home to the madhouse.
It is safe to say that of all the cases of incurable insanity, a large majority are caused by Spermatorrhœa.